Measuring the impact of the proliferation ofprograms designed to divert individuals from the criminal justice system has been hampered by three major factors: nomenclature defining treatment criteria, failure in specifying evaluation goals, and the complexities of gathering appropriate datafor evaluation. Each of these characteristics is examinedfrom the political underpinnings operating within the criminal justice system. From the author's efforts of evaluating adult diversion programs throughout California over a three-year period, each of these characteristic's deleterious effect upon program evaluation is dis cussed.